Slartibartfast

Or just make yourself a little smoke bomb, put it in a Coke can, and set it off. Much cheaper.

Glad you got it figured.

When my uncle welded up the holes in mine, he went all the way around (spot and fill) with no sealer, except for the undercoating I'll be putting on soon. We used floor bits cut from a wrecked 93 at the local yard (cut a bit bigger than the holes for overlap). He used the wirefeed he uses for everything from thin sheets to frame steel. The patch wasn't cheap, but it looks good. One thing to look out for, the old undercoating (unless yours has all fallen off) will try to catch fire from the weld heat. We put a hose underneath the truck with a sprinkler sort of thing on the end to keep it cool under there. (Luckily the seatbelt mounts and all were fine, so we left them alone. Since we were cutting bits from a wrecked Pathy anyway, we would've just taken the brackets out.)

Tore it apart to put new belts in, only to find that the auto parts place gave us the wrong belts.

All I can think of is that you've got a bad harness to your new stereo, or the stereo itself is screwy. While direct-wiring your amp may not be a bad idea, doesn't sound like that's the problem. Definitely do the speaker test... if it fails, sounds like your new stereo is a paperweight. Just curious, what kind of stereo? I put an xplod in mine, no issues.

Take the following with a grain of salt, as I didn't even know what a swirl valve was until today. According to this http://forums.nicoclub.com/swirl-valve-control-solenoid-p1130-t339097.html, a little crud in the vacuum line keeps the actuator from working right, and generates an error code. Clean the hose, and, apparently, problem solved. I'd expect a solenoid to have a return spring, but it may rely on vacuum, airflow, or something else for this. Hopefully it's just your vac line, as these are apparently a PITA to get except from the dealer, and they'll charge you just to open the hood. Hope that helps, gotta love Google.

IIRC, there is an amplifier fuse in the fuse box. It may be blown out/missing. (Did the old stereo work before you pulled it?) Also, I have to ask... is the volume off on the radio? I only ask because that's the kind of herp derp I generally pull. Mine has some speaker hiss when it's on but not playing (aux mode w/o iPod attached). If your speakers are hissing, the amp isn't getting signal. If they're totally dead, the amp isn't getting power.

Great write up. One question though, I was underneath checking out what I had to work with, and noticed that the ends aren't even. One T bar has its back end outside of the crossmember (like the OP), the other has its end tucked inside. Is something worn out, or was some mechanic sloppy? Or are the adjuster bolts just out of whack? (Maybe the previous owner had a go?) Or is this normal/unimportant? Driver's side: Passenger's side:

Oh man... Reindex the torsion bars Undercoat Oil change Trans cooler/ATF change Replace an exhaust gasket where the local grease monkey half welded the pipes together Driver side door hinge Tinker with the headlights/install driving lights Then I need to actually take it off road. Priorities have changed a bit. Fix frame rot. Undercoat. Undercoat. Undercoat. Fix exhaust. Trans cooler. Lights, maybe. Probably more undercoat.

^ Hadn't thought of that. Locked out it is.

I only use overdrive once I'm up to about fifty, and I've yet to find a situation where I needed the E-AT "power" setting. The overdrive makes the trans heat up more during stop and go traffic, or city driving, or towing, or driving 4x4. (Heat and automatics don't like each other.) It also makes the truck sluggish at lower speeds (it feels like there's a little old lady pedaling as hard as she can under the hood, especially on hills). It's a highway gear. Turning the overdrive off also gives you more engine braking when you let off the gas. Let off in overdrive and you coast; disengage the overdrive and the truck slows pretty quickly. My commute includes a couple decent-sized hills, and in underdrive (dunno what else to call it) I seldom have to touch the brakes. Also, according to my dad, don't use overdrive in snow. Apparently it kicks the gearing around more, making the truck more likely to slip, or something. I don't usually drive over fifty in snow, so I don't worry about it. (I'm new here too, and sites like this are why I love the Internet. )

When I got my Pathy, it had a hole in the headlight. It was near the bottom, so I just sealed it up with a little epoxy. I replaced it later with one from the junkyard, which I don't think cost more than $5-10. It's not like it could the headlights any worse, right? There's a steering idler arm which is apparently a weak spot, you can buy/fabricate a brace that strengthens it. A word of warning doing the exhaust, the old headers will be a pain to take off. The studs don't like parting with the block. Poke around a bit and you'll find loads of info... that's what I'm doing.

Today, I discovered the "sport" suspension mode.